B
Las Vegas Raiders
Best value of the weekend goes to the Raiders for Gabriel: B.
by [email protected] ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 6 steals
· 5 reaches
The board owed the Raiders one, and it paid up: Dillon Gabriel, the No. 128 name on the board, sitting there at Round 6, Pick 39 like a gift left on the doorstep. Good, not great, and the B says as much.
They will need Martin to outplay his draft slot in a hurry to justify it. The edge rusher hole is the one line item this class does not answer.
The trade work was a quiet net positive.
All told, a solid class that does its job everywhere but edge rusher.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 15 they get a downhill thumper at linebacker, though the board says they badly overpaid. More want than need.
They paid up for Xavier Watts at the Round 2 slot when waiting would have done the job. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
They stopped a slide they were happy to see, landing TreVeyon Henderson in pick 68. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
They read the board right and Jayden Higgins was the payoff at pick No. 80. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
They paid sticker price for Hollin Pierce in the 108th overall pick, and that is fine. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They robbed the room for Will Howard here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A need, and now a little less of one.
The board fumbled Bhayshul Tuten all the way to the 180th pick, and they scooped it up. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A slide stopped in Round 6, Pick 13, with Dont'e Thornton Jr. worth more than the price. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Nick Martin at the 213th pick is the pick scouts circle, and not in a good way. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
Dillon Gabriel in the Round 6 slot is a gift, value that borders on unfair. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Teddye Buchanan in No. 222 is early enough to raise a brow, if not a full objection. A want more than a need, though you can never have too many.
Clay Webb at the 232nd overall pick jumps the queue by a touch more than is comfortable. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.